How to format a UTC date as a `YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss` string using NodeJS?

UPDATE 2021-10-06: Added Day.js and remove spurious edit by @ashleedawg
UPDATE 2021-04-07: Luxon added by @Tampa.
UPDATE 2021-02-28: It should now be noted that Moment.js is no longer being actively developed. It won't disappear in a hurry because it is embedded in so many other things. The website has some recommendations for alternatives and an explanation of why.
UPDATE 2017-03-29: Added date-fns, some notes on Moment and Datejs
UPDATE 2016-09-14: Added SugarJS which seems to have some excellent date/time functions.

OK, since no one has actually provided an actual answer, here is mine.

A library is certainly the best bet for handling dates and times in a standard way. There are lots of edge cases in date/time calculations so it is useful to be able to hand-off the development to a library.

Here is a list of the main Node compatible time formatting libraries:

• Day.js [added 2021-10-06] "Fast 2kB alternative to Moment.js with the same modern API"
• Luxon [added 2017-03-29, thanks to Tampa] "A powerful, modern, and friendly wrapper for JavaScript dates and times." - MomentJS rebuilt from the ground up with immutable types, chaining and much more.
• Moment.js [thanks to Mustafa] "A lightweight (4.3k) javascript date library for parsing, manipulating, and formatting dates" - Includes internationalization, calculations and relative date formats - Update 2017-03-29: Not quite so light-weight any more but still the most comprehensive solution, especially if you need timezone support. - Update 2021-02-28: No longer in active development.
• date-fns [added 2017-03-29, thanks to Fractalf] Small, fast, works with standard JS date objects. Great alternative to Moment if you don't need timezone support.
• SugarJS - A general helper library adding much needed features to JavaScripts built-in object types. Includes some excellent looking date/time capabilities.
• strftime - Just what it says, nice and simple
• dateutil - This is the one I used to use before MomentJS
• node-formatdate
• TimeTraveller - "Time Traveller provides a set of utility methods to deal with dates. From adding and subtracting, to formatting. Time Traveller only extends date objects that it creates, without polluting the global namespace."
• Tempus [thanks to Dan D] - UPDATE: this can also be used with Node and deployed with npm, see the docs

There are also non-Node libraries:

• Datejs [thanks to Peter Olson] - not packaged in npm or GitHub so not quite so easy to use with Node - not really recommended as not updated since 2007!

There's a library for conversion:

npm install dateformat

Then write your requirement:

var dateFormat = require('dateformat');

Then bind the value:

var day=dateFormat(new Date(), "yyyy-mm-dd h:MM:ss");

see dateformat

I have nothing against libraries in general. In this case a general purpose library seems overkill, unless other parts of the application process dates heavily.

Writing small utility functions such as this is also a useful exercise for both beginning and accomplished programmers alike and can be a learning experience for the novices amongst us.

function dateFormat (date, fstr, utc) {
  utc = utc ? 'getUTC' : 'get';
  return fstr.replace (/%[YmdHMS]/g, function (m) {
    switch (m) {
    case '%Y': return date[utc + 'FullYear'] (); // no leading zeros required
    case '%m': m = 1 + date[utc + 'Month'] (); break;
    case '%d': m = date[utc + 'Date'] (); break;
    case '%H': m = date[utc + 'Hours'] (); break;
    case '%M': m = date[utc + 'Minutes'] (); break;
    case '%S': m = date[utc + 'Seconds'] (); break;
    default: return m.slice (1); // unknown code, remove %
    }
    // add leading zero if required
    return ('0' + m).slice (-2);
  });
}

/* dateFormat (new Date (), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", true) returns 
   "2012-05-18 05:37:21"  */

Check the code below and the link to Date Object, Intl.DateTimeFormat

// var ts_hms = new Date(UTC);
// ts_hms.format("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

// exact format
console.log(new Date().toISOString().replace('T', ' ').substring(0, 19))

// other formats
console.log(new Date().toUTCString())
console.log(new Date().toLocaleString('en-US'))
console.log(new Date().toString())

// log format
const parts = new Date().toString().split(' ')
console.log([parts[1], parts[2], parts[4]].join(' '))

// intl
console.log(new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', {dateStyle: 'long', timeStyle: 'long'}).format(new Date()))

Easily readable and customisable way to get a timestamp in your desired format, without use of any library:

function timestamp(){
  function pad(n) {return n<10 ? "0"+n : n}
  d=new Date()
  dash="-"
  colon=":"
  return d.getFullYear()+dash+
  pad(d.getMonth()+1)+dash+
  pad(d.getDate())+" "+
  pad(d.getHours())+colon+
  pad(d.getMinutes())+colon+
  pad(d.getSeconds())
}

(If you require time in UTC format, then just change the function calls. For example "getMonth" becomes "getUTCMonth")

The javascript library sugar.js (http://sugarjs.com/) has functions to format dates

Example:

Date.create().format('{dd}/{MM}/{yyyy} {hh}:{mm}:{ss}.{fff}')

I am using dateformat at Nodejs and angularjs, so good

install

$ npm install dateformat
$ dateformat --help

demo

var dateFormat = require('dateformat');
var now = new Date();

// Basic usage
dateFormat(now, "dddd, mmmm dS, yyyy, h:MM:ss TT");
// Saturday, June 9th, 2007, 5:46:21 PM

// You can use one of several named masks
dateFormat(now, "isoDateTime");
// 2007-06-09T17:46:21

// ...Or add your own
dateFormat.masks.hammerTime = 'HH:MM! "Can\'t touch this!"';
dateFormat(now, "hammerTime");
// 17:46! Can't touch this!

// You can also provide the date as a string
dateFormat("Jun 9 2007", "fullDate");
// Saturday, June 9, 2007
...

Use the method provided in the Date object as follows:

var ts_hms = new Date();

console.log(
    ts_hms.getFullYear() + '-' + 
    ("0" + (ts_hms.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2) + '-' + 
    ("0" + (ts_hms.getDate())).slice(-2) + ' ' +
    ("0" + ts_hms.getHours()).slice(-2) + ':' +
    ("0" + ts_hms.getMinutes()).slice(-2) + ':' +
    ("0" + ts_hms.getSeconds()).slice(-2));

It looks really dirty, but it should work fine with JavaScript core methods

For date formatting the most easy way is using moment lib. https://momentjs.com/

const moment = require('moment')
const current = moment().utc().format('Y-M-D H:M:S')

Alternative #6233....

Add the UTC offset to the local time then convert it to the desired format with the toLocaleDateString() method of the Date object:

// Using the current date/time
let now_local = new Date();
let now_utc = new Date();

// Adding the UTC offset to create the UTC date/time
now_utc.setMinutes(now_utc.getMinutes() + now_utc.getTimezoneOffset())

// Specify the format you want
let date_format = {};
date_format.year = 'numeric';
date_format.month = 'numeric';
date_format.day = '2-digit';
date_format.hour = 'numeric';
date_format.minute = 'numeric';
date_format.second = 'numeric';

// Printing the date/time in UTC then local format
console.log('Date in UTC: ', now_utc.toLocaleDateString('us-EN', date_format));
console.log('Date in LOC: ', now_local.toLocaleDateString('us-EN', date_format));

I'm creating a date object defaulting to the local time. I'm adding the UTC off-set to it. I'm creating a date-formatting object. I'm displaying the UTC date/time in the desired format:

new Date(2015,1,3,15,30).toLocaleString()

//=> 2015-02-03 15:30:00

In reflect your time zone, you can use this

var datetime = new Date();
var dateString = new Date(
  datetime.getTime() - datetime.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000
);
var curr_time = dateString.toISOString().replace("T", " ").substr(0, 19);
console.log(curr_time);

Here's a handy vanilla one-liner (adapted from this):

var timestamp = 
  new Date((dt = new Date()).getTime() - dt.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000)
  .toISOString()
  .replace(/(.*)T(.*)\..*/,'$1 $2')
console.log(timestamp)

Output: 2022-02-11 11:57:39

Use x-date module which is one of sub-modules of x-class library ;

require('x-date') ; 
  //---
 new Date().format('yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:ss')
  //'2016-07-17 18:12:37'
 new Date().format('ddd , yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:ss')
  // 'Sun , 2016-07-17 18:12:51'
 new Date().format('dddd , yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:ss')
 //'Sunday , 2016-07-17 18:12:58'
 new Date().format('dddd ddSS of mmm , yy')
  // 'Sunday 17thth +0300f Jul , 16'
 new Date().format('dddd ddS  mmm , yy')
 //'Sunday 17th  Jul , 16'

new Date().toLocaleString("sv") // "2023-04-16 14:31:08"

I.e. Sweden happen to use to the format you are looking for.

I needed a simple formatting library without the bells and whistles of locale and language support. So I modified

http://www.mattkruse.com/javascript/date/date.js

and used it. See https://github.com/adgang/atom-time/blob/master/lib/dateformat.js

The documentation is pretty clear.

new Date().toString("yyyyMMddHHmmss").
      replace(/T/, ' ').  
      replace(/\..+/, '') 

with .toString(), This becomes in format

replace(/T/, ' '). //replace T to ' ' 2017-01-15T...

replace(/..+/, '') //for ...13:50:16.1271

example, see var date and hour:

var date="2017-01-15T13:50:16.1271".toString("yyyyMMddHHmmss").
                    replace(/T/, ' ').      
                    replace(/\..+/, '');
    
                    var auxCopia=date.split(" ");
                    date=auxCopia[0];
                    var hour=auxCopia[1];

console.log(date);
console.log(hour);

Here's a lightweight library simple-date-format I've written, works both on node.js and in the browser

Install

• Install with NPM

npm install @riversun/simple-date-format

or

• Load directly(for browser),

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@riversun/simple-date-format/lib/simple-date-format.js"></script>

Load Library

• ES6

import SimpleDateFormat from "@riversun/simple-date-format";

• CommonJS (node.js)

const SimpleDateFormat = require('@riversun/simple-date-format');

Usage1

const date = new Date('2018/07/17 12:08:56');
const sdf = new SimpleDateFormat();
console.log(sdf.formatWith("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX", date));//to be "2018-07-17T12:08:56+09:00"

Run on Pen

Usage2

const date = new Date('2018/07/17 12:08:56');
const sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX");
console.log(sdf.format(date));//to be "2018-07-17T12:08:56+09:00"

Patterns for formatting

https://github.com/riversun/simple-date-format#pattern-of-the-date

import dateFormat from 'dateformat'; var ano = new Date()

<footer>
    <span>{props.data.footer_desc} <a href={props.data.footer_link}>{props.data.footer_text_link}</a> {" "}
    ({day = dateFormat(props.data.updatedAt, "yyyy")})
            </span>
</footer>

rodape

Modern web browsers (and Node.js) expose internationalization and time zone support via the Intl object which offers a Intl.DateTimeFormat.prototype.formatToParts() method.

You can do below with no added library:

function format(dateObject){

    let dtf = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
    year: 'numeric',
    month: 'numeric',
    day: 'numeric',
    hour: 'numeric',
    minute: 'numeric',
    second: 'numeric'
  });
  
  var parts = dtf.formatToParts(dateObject);
  var fmtArr = ["year","month","day","hour","minute","second"];
  var str = "";
  for (var i = 0; i < fmtArr.length; i++) {
    if(i===1 || i===2){
      str += "-";
    }
    if(i===3){
       str += " ";
    }
    if(i>=4){
      str += ":";
    }
    for (var ii = 0; ii < parts.length; ii++) {
    let type = parts[ii]["type"]
    let value = parts[ii]["value"]
      if(fmtArr[i]===type){
        str = str += value;
      }
    }
  }
  return str;
}
console.log(format(Date.now()));

You can use Light-Weight library Moment js

npm install moment

Call the library

var moments = require("moment");

Now convert into your required format

moment().format('MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a');

And for more format and details, you can follow the official docs Moment js

An example of code from moment js moment(currentTime, "YYYY-MM-DDTH:mm:ssZ");

• "T": A literal 'T' character, used to separate the date and time components.
• "Z": Represents the time zone offset in ISO 8601 format

The result of using this format: 2024-01-20T12:44:00Z

When currentTime is in UTC for client-side, I added it like this and it worked fine, and instead of using moment, you may use dayJS.

I think this actually answers your question.

It is so annoying working with date/time in javascript. After a few gray hairs I figured out that is was actually pretty simple.

var date = new Date();
var year = date.getUTCFullYear();
var month = date.getUTCMonth();
var day = date.getUTCDate();
var hours = date.getUTCHours();
var min = date.getUTCMinutes();
var sec = date.getUTCSeconds();

var ampm = hours >= 12 ? 'pm' : 'am';
hours = ((hours + 11) % 12 + 1);//for 12 hour format

var str = month + "/" + day + "/" + year + " " + hours + ":" + min + ":" + sec + " " + ampm;
var now_utc =  Date.UTC(str);

Here is a fiddle

appHelper.validateDates = function (start, end) {
    var returnval = false;

    var fd = new Date(start);
    var fdms = fd.getTime();
    var ed = new Date(end);
    var edms = ed.getTime();
    var cd = new Date();
    var cdms = cd.getTime();

    if (fdms >= edms) {
        returnval = false;
        console.log("step 1");
    }
    else if (cdms >= edms) {
        returnval = false;
        console.log("step 2");
    }
    else {
        returnval = true;
        console.log("step 3");
    }
    console.log("vall", returnval)
    return returnval;
}

it's possible to solve this problem easily with 'Date'.

function getDateAndTime(time: Date) {
  const date = time.toLocaleDateString('pt-BR', {
    timeZone: 'America/Sao_Paulo',
  });
  const hour = time.toLocaleTimeString('pt-BR', {
    timeZone: 'America/Sao_Paulo',
  });
  return `${date} ${hour}`;
}

it's to show: // 10/31/22 11:13:25